the market is going to finish with a 33-point decline on the dow industrial average and we'll watch carefully what is going on in greece. much more. stay tuned now. maria bartiromo in the next hour of the "closing bell." >> and it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo. we're following at the close this wednesday afternoon. the dow industrial set to close in four-month low tonight p fears out of europe once again taking center stage. the s&p and nasdaq set to close at the lowest levels since early february. not even new hints that more fed members might be in favor of additional stimulus was able to overcome concerns about grease leaving the euro zone which many people think is happening in the next year. two top strategists weighing in at the top of the program. take a look at how we're

finishing wall street, down a quarter of a percent. 12,599 is the blue chip average and 32% lower on nasdaq. finishing at 13,024. banks taking it on the chin again. 4% declining in the next week. noted banking analyst meredith whitney in the hour told me that bank stocks are not due for turn around any time soon. >> zero movement on the upside. i can't think of one catalyst. they've jammed so much into the first quarter and benefited so much from the european ltro program that there's no way that they can hit the type of returns that -- for the rest of the year that they hit in the first quarter. >> and we'll be getting reaction

with charles can for coming up and also chief market strategist also with me as our very own bob pisani. thank you for joining us. how worried are you? >> i am worried the the uncertainty is continuing to weigh on the banks. we haven't seen the type of deleveraging that would make me feel comfortable. >> bob, even though we had positive news coming out of the fed with talk of more movement, it's all about europe. >> you'll notice there is no bounce from europe. we're down 10 of the last 12 days and there's nobody going in and buying the dips right now. that's a change. we got a three-year rally suddenly they are not. that's a little bit of a concern. we need to change the headline for greece. we need to figure out a new

headline that's going to work. maybe facebook buys greece. >> we had a headline in terms of dividends. we all know what's going to happen possibly at the end of the year with all of the tax cuts expiring, dividend taxes potentially could go to 43%. does that change the dynamic of owning dividend players? >> i don't think it does. we have a strong asset base and what can support that. when you think of where they trade on a dividend yield basis, there's much more value and possibly even more safety. so i think investors keep looking for income. it will continue to be a theme regardless. >> but investors are desperate for income. this is a record year for

dividends. so the s&p, they feel investors want dividends. >> you can rely on dividends you can count them and take them to the bank. >> my question is, things are not going to change at the end of the year. does that change the idea of having the steady income if you're going to have to pay 43% on dividends that you're getting? >> i think that if that happens obviously it goes lower. we're a long way away from finalizing that decision. for now we want to take the things that we can to the bank and those are dividends. >> what do you think? all dividend players? >> yeah. i only partly agree. we find companies with the highest payout and dividend yields are actually perhaps as expensive as the tech stocks. we're at the peak of the bubble. they are trading at a huge premium because they demand stable income. but i do agree with the point that dividend growers, the companies that have the

potential bailout -- >> i wonder how this change in tax policy dictates what is happening. maybe companies buy fewer dividend. if it's not dividend payers where, do you want to invest? >> stable growth, superior growth is going to perform well in this environment. chimpb china is still a big issue. if you can deliver superior relative growth, such as companies and health care that has pricing power, they will outperform. >> think about this, capital gains for the facebook insiders. if what you're talking about happens, we have a new tax situation, it's going to be very devastating for them. the answer is, it's going to change the way people invest. >> yes. exactly. gentlemen, thank you. meanwhile, outspoken investor david einhorn after

speaking at a conference in new york, scott has the details on that. >> here we are where david einhorn wrapped up his presentation. he went through 137 slides about 15 minutes or so and i have to say the most intriguing part was what he didn't say. there was no mention whatsoever of herbalife. that's a stock that took a huge dive when einhorn asked some questions about financial reporting and accounting to management. the stock was down 20% or so that day. you can see the stock moving higher. it looks to be a 3% move and in reality it was moving higher before he even took the stage here. not sure who knew what when. but it's an interesting story that there was a lot of wild speculation that einhorn was going to mention herbalife, that he was short that name.

a source for the company said they were anxious for this day because they were not sure what was going to happen. no mention of herbalife by david einhorn. let's move through other stocks that he spoke about. dick's supporting goods. unlike the other presenters here, he says, i could be long, i could be short. he doesn't say which for each stock. you have to see whether he's positive, whether he's negative, and make your own guess as to what side of the fence he's on, though it does obviously become clear after he was clearly negative on dick's supporting goods. it's a play that amazon will do anything that it takes, jeff

basos, the ceo of amazon, he did say it was difficult to assess amazon, by the way, but the bigger story centered around dick's supporting goods. let me mention apple. einhorn is long that day. he just reiterated all of the reasons why he continues to like shares of apple. and interesting day. again, more for what he didn't say than what he did paulson is yet to take the stage and all of the details from here when they give their investment ideas. >> they should be certainly well closely watched. scott, you mentioned amazon. i think amazon is winning. $13 billion a year? this company is on fire. >> and you know what, i think the point that einhorn was making is that jeff doesn't care

about earnings. he's sacrificing short-term earnings growth for long-term growth. >> yes. and revenue growth. >> yeah. and that's why he thinks he's going to do whatever it takes to hurt somebody like dick's. >> certainly feels that way. thank you, scott. we'll see you later, scott wapner at the conference in new york city. gold prices today tumbling in the bear market territory on concerns that greece will have to exit the euro. the precious metal fell more than 20% since the train day record in september as the u.s. dollar index has hit a four-month high. gold settling down 1% at 1536 an ounce. bruno, the london whale at the center of the trading loss is still at the firm. he's expected to leave at some point and there was a chief investment office ina drew resigned.

he oversaw the disastrous trade. james baker and saratoga and trust, the jpmorgan chase and management took excessive risk. jpmorgan chase not commenting on the lawsuits. let's take a short break but don't change that channel. all of this and a lot more still ahead. falling off the fiscal cliff. what hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts set to expire, are we about to see the dividend gravy train come to a screeching halt? plus, the way one percenters are signaling red flags for the markets. markets. with dedicated supports at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help.

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welcome back. we've got a lot of news in the after hours trading session. let's go to brian shactman. over to you. >> some interesting news. making an acquisition for a peninsula gaming. trading to the downside, it's

come back. it was down 3 plus percent. the financing is fully in place for this acquisition. i also want to take a look at red robin. i've never ate there but i'm told they have unlimited fries. revenue was light but i want to share with you the comps. they have plus half of a percent. 2.3%. they expect 20102 not to have more than 1% growth in comps. finally, holy frontier, talking about all of the dividends being more announcement of 15% dividend from 10 cents. you have to own it by june 5th, payable by june 3rd. get a little nice steak and burger for a barbecue. >> brian, thank you so much. in fact, speaking of dividends, not one but two

announcements ahead of the close there. southwest airlines boosting the quarterly dividend and buyback plan. a special $4.5 billion dividend back to parent general electric. will these types of moves become common places ahead of what some are calling tax-meggedon? good to have you on the program. thanks for joining us. let's get into this. i've been trying to figure out what kind of market implications this fiscal cliff or expiration of all of these tax cuts will have. some call it a taxmeggedon. how do you figure, boost dividends until next year? what are you saying? >> i think we could see an increase in the special

dividends. we saw this when the dividend tax rate came down in 2003. 51 companies issued dividends in the six months following enactment of this tax cut. there's a greater probability that this is going away than there ever was before and companies, particularly during the lame duck period after the election, could easily push a lot of money out the door in that period of time if they believe the dividend rate is going back up. >> okay. so you're saying this year we're going to see a spike in this but then it changes next year when the rates go much higher? >> some of this will hinge certainly on the outcome of the election. >> sure. >> republicans win and win big and especially if they win the senate and white house, the dividend rates will likely stay low. but if things go the other way, there's a high probability that the dividend tax rate will go from 15 to where it is now to roughly 45%. >> i have to tell you, i was talking to someone the other day, a head of a firm, and he said to me, look, if these and

we'll buy our stock back and increase our dividends. david, you say we're not going to see any surge in dividends. why not. >> you have to remember that most of the stockholders are there are either tax exempt institutions or tax exempt account. it would only benefit a few. further t. could preversely work to the debt detriment of the tax situation and push them into higher tax brackets. if companies want to do something shareholder friendly, they could be buying back stock, trying to grow their business and buy another business. all of those things i think would be far more shareholder friendly, things to create value without accelerating tax

liabilities to this year. in fact, preversely, while paying out a special dividend now, they will send a message to wall street that could perversely pay it out. >> when you talk about 15% to 43%, god, these numbers are so mind boggling. do you think it's sort of a -- you know, an obvious answer that we see a market selloff if that actually happens? >> well, i don't think so. first of all, i don't think anyone knows exactly where the tax rates are going to ends up. >> no, we don't know because they haven't come to an agreement. of course we don't know. but if they do nothing, we know what will happen. taxes will go to 43%. >> well, i think there's going to be a special focus. and then in the tax shelter accounts, the tax exempt institutions are going to take

advantage of a selloff and add that to their portfolio. there's certainly a way to play it. >> proof is in the past. let's talk about other dividend boosts. wha walk us through microsoft's dividend. what did we learn from that? >> sure. if one takes a look at the income data you can see in plain sight the impact of that huge $32 billion one-time special dividend in the fall of 2004. put about $24 billion in consumers' hands. object yisly some of it went to shareholders that were not taxable but wound up in individuals. my broader point is that we do know that companies are watching this tax issue. we know that they are aware that the rates could go up dramatically. they have the ability to act quickly if they want to in the lame duck and we know that they did that when the rate came

down. what happens in 2013, there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty with the tax code and if companies will reduce their growth of their long-term permanent dividend policy, we saw that -- we saw those policies affected by the dividend tax rate cut as well. david's point is good, i agree, there's certainly a range of options, buybacks, debt payback as well but i think that the dividend tax is something that we see people responding to and if it's the case that democrats prevail in november, i think we could see a lot of specials. >> a lot of special dividends. are companies jumping the gun, reacting to tax laws that haven't happened yet? >> i think so after that microsoft big dividend payout, microsoft's best days are behind it and indeed looking now that apple has initiated the

dividend, the stock has done nothing but go down. the best advice is to focus on long-term growth and not focus on a small segment of shareholders and what their tax situation is. >> gentlemen, thank you so much. we'll see you soon. appreciate the time on this important topic and of course we'll keep covering it. >> here's a story that has caught our eyes. states are using cash for struggling homeowners. we'll tell you where that is going. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪

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and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ welcome back. the housing data of the day. welcome news for the industry. we have a rally in the number of the companies but if you're a struggling homeowner, this following story is not too encouraging. enterprise community partners have reported that 15 states have used all or part of a huge mortgage settlement for something other than helping borrowers and homeowners. what you may ask? georgia will use money for economic development and missouri will use it to ease higher education cuts and texas, wisconsin, kansas, maine have or want to put the money into a general fund. and virginia legislators want to use part of their cash for a 3% employee raise. believe it or not, chris thornburg says states are absolutely doing the right thing

by delivering mortgage-relief funds. ron insana says this is a terrible idea. gentlemen, thank you for joining us. chris, kick it off here. why is it reasonable for the state to use money used for holes in their budgets? >> well, obviously the money was supposed to be going for one purpose and it's being repurposed. i get it, from an ideological standpoint, that will help some people. to be purely pragmatic, the amount of money that we're talking about with most of the settlements is hardly enough to help any reasonable number of homeowners. we take california, at best as much as it is, one of the biggest ones in the nation, you can, at most, help 100,000 homeowners and even the principle reductions will be at best modest and it's not going to do anything. it's not going to make any dent in the housing market whereas, of course, if you took the money and applied it to the big budget

that we have, that money will get out into the economy and have a large stimulative effect. it's going to have a better impact. >> well, i mean, ron, in the end when the money goes to foreclosure relief, it's still a help, right? >> the lawsuit was for bad behavior on the part of banks that agreed to pay $25 billion in restitution in order to achieve a foreclosure mitigation and relief for those homeowners under water. so then you have to ask, was the lawsuit itself fraudulent so i think it's a horrible idea and the states ought to put that money to work in foreclosure mitigation and relief program. yes, if you stimulate your domestic economy, it helps. but it doesn't help those people who need it the most. >> what about what chris says, that it is not going to make a

dent in anything any way? >> it depends. california is using a large amount of money to help plug its rather massive deficit. but $40 million could go a long way. there's a lot of homes, when you look at some individuals needing 40 $50,000 worth of relief. >> chris, what about that? >> it's a trivial amount of money. you're looking at a mortgage market of $1.33 trillion. who gets that money? will it help? and by the way, should we really be helping people who made bad financial decisions? foreclosure is a best solution for households. get out, start over with a clean slate and get your credit repair remarkably fast. i don't see any reason at all to be lobbying money at a housing market which, by the way, is already turning the corner. >> i don't dispute that. when we start blaming the borrowers for actions that in many ways were beyond their

control and really flies in the face of a practical reality. not always willingly and knowingly take risks. they weren't properly explained to the borrowers and i think some people were taken advantage of and i think there are ways to find the people who need help the most and people who were most agrieved by the situation. >> large fingers pointing on that one. >> it's called sichl court. >> if you can't pay your house payment. and that's what the lawsuit was for. >> the states did that. they sued on behalf of the homeowner. >> the states didn't do anything except to take a populous stance on a nonproblem. yes, they are filling out the paperwork appropriately but 99.9% of them have been foreclosed for one reason, they haven't been paying their mortgage and nobody ever disputed that.

>> wrell, it may have been out f their control. >> gentlemen, we'll continue to focus on this conversation. mark zuckerberg will be rising to the challenge. asking zuck to give nonprofits, a fair shot at the ipo. what if the stock goes down? and i want to get your feedback on another issue that we talked about earlier, should zuk zuk add a woman to facebook ahead of the ipo? tweet us. we'll put your responses on the air. back in a moment.

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all right. welcome back. market sources today, one of the hot topics, of course, is ipos after facebook expanded in the number of shares being offered last night. facebook is on track to be the largest ipo ever.

rich tells me that the ten largest ipos ever averaged a trading gain of 31%. facebook's ipo will be ten times the 2004 ipo which raised $1.66 billion. if facebook is priced at $38 a share, it will boost a market value of $104 billion and rank facebook as the world's ninth largest technology company. also at current levels, proceeds from facebook's expected 16 billi billion ipo than fototal procee raised year to date. that would be $11 billion. congressman says facebook stock should not be reserved for the elite so he's calling on mark zuckerberg to set aside a portion for the challenges. congressman joins me now in an

exclusive interview to make his case. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. look, i am just applaud facebook and zuckerberg. this is a great team. i hope they have a great ipo. i'm just suggesting that if some small percent can be set aside so nonprofits can purchase just like everyone else at the same price -- >> that's what the small investor wants, too, by the way. the small investor is trying to get a piece of this action as well. >> absolutely. i'm thinking about the boys and girls club and we have some great organizations and this could be a way -- and this could lead the example for other ipos in the future to have a little public spirited action as part of an overall day in which people do well. >> congressman, did they respond? tell me, did you hear back from mark zuckerberg of facebook? >> we don't have a yes yet but i am very hopeful. he did $100 million for newark.

he did it in stock. that was a gift. we're not going to talk about a gift. tell your financial advisers that a small percentage of their stock should be sold to some of our great nonprofits. you've got -- i'm focused on youth-based groups but it could be museums, any kind of groups -- >> american cancer society. i get it. let me ask you this. some might say be careful what you wish for. the stock could go down and you would lose money. the nonprofits bought the shares that they were allocated stock. they bought the stock and then very soon after it trades below the ipo price. that certainly can happen. then what? >> well, absolutely. and, you know, this could be a google -- >> you sure you want to put nonprofits on the way like that? >> they have to invest it somewhere and many have small endowments and i think they should at least have the opportunity and you know how this is going to go. if you're not in the know, you're not going to have a shot at the ipos.

and i hope that we have groups in our country that are in the business of helping people. i hope they have an opportunity. >> right. my point is, is that, you know, it's investing and it's making a bet on a company and each nonprofit or fund has its own mentality in terms of what screens they look at and how they approach investing. do you think facebook is the kind of company that you would want a nonprofit to be making that endowment on? it could lose money. >> you could lose money but you could be on the winning side. look at google what he is happening with their stock. i think facebook is going to do well. they have almost a billion people signed up through their network. they really own that space in terms of social networking. and they really relate well to younger people. not people like me with gray hair but people who are young and engaged in facebook and i think it would be an offering by the company not withstanding

what the result may be. they may not be in a position to buy. >> the nonprofit could have complained that they had a $2 billion trading loss. >> but jpmorgan made 19 billion last quarter. you're going to win some, lose some. >> right. >> i wouldn't mind if a great nonprofit owned some with jpmorgan today. we have some ups and downs in our market but you know what the general direction is and we've seen it over just the last three years. that president obama has been in town, this market has zoomed forward and a lot of people project that it's going to keep going in that direction. >> let me get your take, congressman, another issue that we have here. we're talking about a fiscal cliff at the end of the year. are you poised to make an agreement with your friends on the other side of the aisle in terms of not allowing the bush tax cuts to expire so dividend taxes don't go to 43%? where are you on this, sir? >> i'm on to 34 out of 435 who voted for bowles/simpson.

i'm for making a reasonable decision about cutting unnecessary programs and also raising additional revenues. we can't be the wealthiest country in the world and at the same time being the world's greatest panhandlers. >> so my question really was, are you going to vote to agree to not allow some tax cuts to expire? are you going to come to an agreement that not all of the tax cuts will expire? would you be prepared to vote for that? >> i'm prepared to vote for continuing tax cuts particularly for the middle class and 250 and under. but i don't believe we should have, for people who in the very wealthiest categories you, know, benefit from additional tax cuts at a time when we have a mountain of debt. >> you mean like dividend taxes? >> look, i mean that we need to make adjustments so that the top 1, 2, 3% that have done so well,

i think it's time that they are going to have to pay more of the costs to bear for our country. but there is still room for tax cuts for 95% of the american public. >> congressman, i just want to be clear, are you going to vote to extend the tax cuts on dividends? >> well, i have voted in the past to do so. and it depends on the whole context of the deal. there has to be cuts. there has to be new revenues, and we have to reduce the deficit by significant or in the debt by a significant amount. i even have my own proposal around the consumption-base tax and move it away from the income tax. i'd like to see major tax reform and new revenues as part of an overhaul deal. >> you want a consumption tax. >> yes. an american and uniquely american bet. i want a transaction fee but not on the financial markets. i'm talking about more on the

every day transactions that take place in our economy. i think it's the way to go. >> what do you mean? like selling your car? >> i mean not transactions in and out of personal accounts but business to business transactions but not in the financial markets. i'm talking about every day transactions, a small user fee for using the best economy in the world to make transactions. that we have a great court system. we have a great regulatory environment and i think that we have to have a consumption base tax individually. i've designed one that i think is unique and that will be useful in our economy. >> all right. we'll leave it there. we'll be watching for that. you sound like a german finance minister. >> look, 150 countries have consumption or consumption-based taxes and we don't but we're eventually going to get that because -- >> we know what that got europe, right? >> well, we're a consumption-based economy. no wonder we're broke. >> congressman, good to have you

on the program. thank you so much. >> thank you. as we count down to facebook's ipo, should mark zuckerberg add a woman to the board? what difference does it make who is on the board when he has 57%. the whole thing is obscene and over-hyped. damon tells us, why, is there something wrong with the men? william tweets, i would vote for at least half of the board being women. it strikes me as strange that there is not a woman on the board as of now. thank you shall everybody, for all of your tweets. don't forget the facebook call the close challenge. go to facebook.com/cnbc. where do you think facebook will close on its first day of trading? you can win a "closing bell" price pack. we'll announce the winner on friday. i stuck my neck out last hour.

i told you where i think it will close. tell us what you think. the 1% bumming? why the so-called wealthy are not doing with their money may concern the 99%. robert frank is coming next. plus, storm clouds are coming on the horizon and what may push the u.s. economy costing hundreds and billions of dollars into the program. it's completely in washington's hands to stop it. we're back in a flash. ck in a flash. >> announcer: time now for going global europe. >> hello, i'm karen tso. investors fearing that spain may miss the deficit target for the year, how will the country's auction go? we'll have the results for you. plus, a big earnings for uk companies. we're talking about how the companies are fairing. and one of the highly anticipated ipos a day ahead on

the nasdaq. tune in to cnbc world to catch all of the action overseas. at cnbc's european headquarters, i'm karen tso going global with your money. your money. sometimes investing opportunities are hard to spot. you have to dig a little. fidelity's etf market tracker shows you the big picture on how different asset classes are performing, and it lets you go in for a closer look at areas within a class or sector that may be bucking a larger trend. i'm stephen hett of fidelity investments. the etf market tracker is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn

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welcome back. it's been one of the mantras of occupy wall street, don't own stocks. now the top 1% may be following suit after america's wealthiest are saving a third of their income and not investing in stocks. cnbc's new wealth editor has this story. welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> what are the changes that you are seeing? what are wealthy americans doing with their money? under the mattress? what are you seeing? >> traditionally the wealthy have been the leaders when it comes to competence and risk taking. what this survey shows is that they are piling up their cash reserves and putting it under the mattress and in money markets and in checking accounts and they are not putting it in stocks. >> so it's almost sort of a comment that you really want to preserve capital and you just don't want to take on any risk right now in the face of these uncertainties, right? >> that's right. a lot of billionaires recently

told me that they don't want a return on assets, they just want their assets returned. and the reason that this is important is because the top 1% owns more than half of the stocks in this country. so they are a big driver of this market. if they are not buying and if they are selling, that's really going to put a lid on the growth in the market. >> you know, a couple of months ago i guess it was larry figure that came out and said, look, we're the largest asset manager. we have a responsibility to make sure people understand keeping money in securities that are not yielding anything, you're actually losing money. so how is this bad for the market right now? we know that the money is not sitting there and it's not coming into the market but there are deeper implications, negative? >> the deeper implications are if they are not investing in the market, they are not investing in companies that create jobs and equally important, if they are building up all of this cash, it means that they are not spending in the consumer economy. the top 5% spend more than a third of the consumer economy.

so it's easy to make fun of the wealthy and attack them. the fact is, the fear of the wealthy is really holding back the economy, holding back jobs and it's holding back the stock market. >> yeah, it's a great point to make and that's certainly what we're hearing from ceos and sort of the implications on the economy are jobs because they are not putting that money to work. what do you think changes that? is it an election in november? is it a change in the white house? is it tax policy? what gets this money moving again, robert? >> i think it's all those things. when you look at the wealthy, they have -- what sets them apart is they have a very long time horizon for investing. what they worry about are deficits, the functionality of our government, they worry about europe. so it's all of these big structural things that are not easy fixes that they are concerned about. and, unfortunately, that's not an overnight solution for these people. >> all right. we'll be watching this developing story throughout the year. robert, good to talk to you. thank you so much. >> thank you. tomorrow today, what may

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tomorrow in 30, the facebook trade, initial claims and the final strips for earnings. how the market is watching ahead of tomorrow's session and with 30 seconds on the clock, what it could mean for the portfolio. from at that time row capital and eric marshall. we kick it off with you. the clock begins now. >> against the retailer, wal-mart and ross stores, wal-mart will report an inline numbers and because of warm weather, i think the company is facing big competitive threats from the dollar stores and i'm inclined to sell and i thought the quarter was good. ross stores reports the off price retamers are on fire and the company will report good number and guidance, but i prefer tjx. >> gotta go.

just in time. go ahead. what are you watching for tomorrow and the clock starts now. >> sure. we have to keep an eye on the european yields and jobless claims, but i'm a trader and looking to trade the facebook ipo. i'm not going to buy it when it comes out, i'm buying sympathy plays. i like yelp and zynga. they are seeing a little bit of relative strength with a stop at 8 and 20 respectively. you can buy them and catch a bid on the facebook ipo. >> they will be impacted on facebook. you are up. 30 seconds to tell us what's on your mind for tomorrow. >> we wouldn't get caught up in jobless claims or the headlines overnight. instead we are still in the final stretch of earnings season and wal-mart the other specialty retailer. it will be a proxy for what's going on for consumer spending and sentiment is too negative

and we will be in there buying individual companies very carefully in areas where that negative sentiment is really much worse than the fundamentals. >> great. thanks so much for all of you and thanks for taking it in time. see you soon. thank you very much. up next, are we headed the way of thelma and louise? you sure? >> yeah. >> the end of the year marks expiration of tax and budget cuts that amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. my observation on the fiscal cliff next. [ male announcer ] this... is the at&t network.

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let's solve this. >> welcome back. we have breaking news from the imf. she is speaking on dutch tv. saying that the optimal solution for the euro zone is that greece agrees to the bailout and stays in the euro. making this news just moments ago on dutch television. optimal solution and greece agrees to the terms and stays in the euro. while europe continues to grapple with the austerity and getting arms around out of control debt and spending, back in the usa, government leaders

have to address an urgent and immediate problem. many are characterizing as a fiscal cliff. they have to stop a collision of tax along with key spending on certain programs crucial to the economy. this coming to a head and will impact both demands and the expens expenses. many things are set to expire. all the tax cuts on dividends and estates. there is an expiration on the payroll tax and reduction of transfer to state and local governments. there is an extragz of infrastructure and the automatic cut on digressionary spending because we failed to reach an agreement. yesterday the point is all of this is expiring at the same time. leaving a more than $500 billion hole, about 3.5% of the country's gdp.

that would mean we plunge into a recession. if by some miracle, the realistic assessment is a drag. even if the clip is not a free fall and that would be because some womans won't expire because they come to an agreement, they will be the beginnings of a slow down because they will be reducing disposable income and cutting demand. you reduce aggregate by reducing spending and that increases the chances of economic mess for america. just an observation. look at the recap in this stat check. we had a market that was under pressure. blame it on europe. declining since january on concerns that greece may have no choice but to leave the euro. just agreed to the bailout terms and you won't leave the euro. posting the first four-day losing streak in a month. nasdaq